Giving employees blazing fast new smartphones will certainly boost morale at Yahoo – just like free food will – but that’s not the whole point.

According to the memo, the idea is for Yahoo employees to use the phones that Yahoo users are using.

“We’d like our employees to have devices similar to our users, so we can think and work as the majority of our users do.”

That’s pretty smart. The program will cost Yahoo a few million dollars, which is pocket change for a company with annual revenues in the billions of dollars. The benefit will be a more informed and motivated workforce.

Here’s a memo that just went out:

We have a very exciting update to share with you today – we are announcing Yahoo! Smart Phones, Smart Fun! As of today, Yahoo is moving off of blackberries as our corporate phones and on to smartphones in 22 countries. A few weeks ago, we said that we would look into smartphone penetration rates globally and take those rates into account when deciding on corporate phones. Ideally, we’d like our employees to have devices similar to our users, so we can think and work as the majority of our users do.

Moving forward, we’ll offer you a choice of devices as well as provide monthly plans for the data and phone.